The First Step To Jibbs
by Penny Shepard
Summary: ***Title may change*** So it's 1996, Mike Franks has just left NCIS leaving his Probie to run his own team, but Gibbs isn't too happy to be paired with a female probationary agent; however, there's something about her that makes him warm to her...maybe the fact she's a red head helps. Prequel to my series and to NCIS please R
1. Chapter 1

**OK so I've wanted to start a new series, don't worry though guys, I'm not giving up on the series I've already been writing. This is going to be a pre series, so it takes place during the 90s when Jenny was an agent and Jibbs was first together. So this is set from 1996 onwards.**

Gibbs stormed out of the director's office, making sure he slammed the door behind him, before practically running down the stairs. He was still gripping the personnel file tightly in his hands; the one Director Morrow had just given him so that he could read up on his new probationary agent.

Ever since Mike had suddenly retired, Morrow had been breathing down his neck to pick a new agent to be his partner; but truth be told he was still reeling from Mike's hasty departure. After losing Shannon and Kelly he didn't think he would find any sense of normality or routine again, but Mike had genuinely helped him through it and helped him become the man he was today. Now he was going to have to find a way to deal with everything on his own and hope Mike had taught him well enough.

However, it wasn't the fact that he had to be paired with a new partner that had pissed him off, or even that his new partner was a probationer, fresh from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre at Glynco, it was the fact that his new partner was a woman.

He knew that everyone had to start somewhere; he also knew that if Mike hadn't given him a chance then he'd never have been given this opportunity, but the idea of him being partnered with a woman…? The thought was incorrigible.

He sat at his desk and began reading the future agent's file and was semi-impressed by her. She sounded bright, but had no previous investigative experience and field work was very different from the training received at the centre. He had no idea how either of them was going to cope with this assignment and he had a feeling it wasn't going to last very long. But he guessed that he was about to find out.

A young red haired woman stepped out from the elevator and walked into the squad room. She was dressed smartly with a salmon coloured shirt, grey pants and black heels. She had her long hair tied back into a high ponytail, which swished from side to side as she walked, and her black coat draped over her arm.

She looked round the squad room and grabbed the first agent she saw pass her.

'Excuse me; I'm looking for Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs?' She asked as she spoke to the male agent.

'He's right over there.' He said as he pointed in Gibbs' direction.

The young red head thanked the agent and moved off in the direction he had indicated, finally finding the elusive agent and her new boss.

'Special Agent Gibbs?' She asked as she approached his desk.

At first Gibbs glared at the young woman in front of him, but only very briefly until he saw her properly. The first thing he noticed was that she was a red head, tall and slim and exactly his type. She was in her early thirties and he had to admit that she was going add a certain sparkle to the office.

'Uh huh.' He replied as he stood up.

'I'm Jenny Shepard, it's a pleasure to meet you sir.' She said as she held out her hand to him.

'It's Gibbs, not sir.' He said with a small smile as he shook her hand.

'Sorry, Gibbs it is.' She replied.

'Never apologise either, it's a sign of weakness.' He added before dumping his empty coffee cup into the trash can.

Jenny felt stunned. She'd not even been in the man's company for five minutes and he was already basically looking down his nose at her. He was obviously one of those chauvinistic types who probably thought her role was to stay at home in the kitchen; well she was going to prove him wrong.

'Where's my desk?' She asked politely, although she didn't remove her eyes from his for a moment.

'That one.' He said as he pointed at the empty desk to the right of his.

She turned round and dumped all of her belongings on the floor behind the desk before returning to his desk.

'So what's first?' She asked.

'Well I'm in the middle of a case right now. Think you can catch up on this in the time it takes us to ride the elevator down to autopsy?' He asked as he handed her three files.

Her eyes narrowed as she took the files from him, trying to formulate an appropriate answer.

'Let's go!' She said as she headed to the mouth of the bullpen. 'I'm a fast learner; I'll pick it up as we go.' She added.

Gibbs smirked, but not so she noticed. She was feisty, he could tell, and he liked that; although he did have a feeling that he was going to have his hands full with her. 


	2. Chapter 2

Gibbs led Jenny into autopsy where Ducky was working. Their dead petty officer was laid out on one of the autopsy tables, but on this occasion the cadaver was covered, revealing only his head and arms. However, this was still enough to make Jenny uncomfortable.

She'd never encountered a real life dead body before, apart from relatives and friends who had passed away; this was the first time she'd had to face someone she didn't know and who had been murdered.

Ducky looked at the young woman accompanying Gibbs and tried to hide his smirk. He'd known Gibbs for a couple of years and had gotten to know his personality and quirks quite well; so he knew that his chauvinistic tendencies were not going to take too kindly to this latest development.

Looking at the young woman he could see that she wasn't comfortable with the cadaver on the table, it was obviously her first, so he put her out of her misery and covered the petty officer completely. He could see that, already, she was trying to prove herself to Gibbs, and probably all the other males in the building, that she could be as tough as them.

'What've you got Duck?' Gibbs asked the ME.

'Something that's puzzling me Jethro.' Ducky replied as he led the special agent to the x-ray board. 'Here you can see a very clear brake in the fourth vertebrae where his neck has clearly been snapped, but there is some sort of metal object inside the break.' He explained as both Gibbs and Jenny examined the x-ray.

'It looks like part of a syringe.' Jenny suggested as she looked at it.

'That's a very good guess my dear, it's exactly what I thought; although I won't know for definite until I remove it.' He replied. 'I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself. I'm Doctor Donald Mallard, but my friends call me Ducky.'

'Nice to meet you Ducky, I'm Jenny.' She replied as she shook his hand.

'You two finished?' Gibbs asked irritably.

'It's going to be another couple of hours before I've completed the autopsy; but I'll place a full report of my findings on your desk.' Ducky said as he turned his attentions back to the case.

On hearing what Ducky had to say Gibbs swept immediately out of the room, leaving Jenny standing with a confused look for a few moments. Eventually she realised that she was required to follow him as the shock of his rudeness wore off.

'Where we going?' She asked once she'd caught up to him in the bullpen, observing the fact he was gearing up.

'We're going to speak to Petty Officer Martin's commanding officer; someone has been lying to me and I expect to find out who.' He replied as he rushed out of the bullpen, closely followed by Jenny.

She found the journey excruciatingly quiet with Gibbs not answering any of her questions or even making the effort to form a casual conversation. She was beginning to think that she'd made a mistake joining his team and was starting to consider asking for a transfer; however, she knew if she did that she'd appear weak and that was something she wasn't.

They arrived at the ship docked in the port and found the area to be bustling into action. Some of the naval officers were coughing and most were covered in black soot.

'What happened?' Gibbs asked as she approached a senior naval officer he'd obviously spoken with before.

'We don't know yet Agent Gibbs. All I can tell you at the moment is that a fire broke out on the ship and then there was a small explosion.' The navy captain explained.

'Many casualties?' Gibbs asked.

'Fourteen injured, five dead and two officers are unaccounted for.' The captain said.

Jenny looked at the chaos around her; no matter what training had thrown at her, she'd never encountered anything like this.

She followed the Captain and Gibbs onto the ship and down to where the fire was started and was stunned by what they found. That part of the ship was a wreck, surprising them all that anyone had survived. The metal was buckled in places from the heat of the fire and from the force of the explosion; the remains of furniture that had been inside the rooms affected were scattered everywhere. It was clear that it had started in one of the sleeping compartments, and as they drew closer a rancid smell filled their nostrils, making Jenny retch.

The source of the smell soon became apparent when they entered the room to find a badly burnt body, laid on the remains of his bed. The room was a smouldering mess, with fire crew still working on making the area safe.

'When can we start processing the scene?' Gibbs asked the fire chief.

'Not for a while yet; come back in a couple of hours, we should have her secured by then.' The chief replied.

'So what now?' Jenny asked as she tried to hide the fact she was holding her breath.

'We start asking questions.' Gibbs said as he led her back out into the fresh air. 'One of the first rules of being an investigator, never let suspects stay together.'

'That was one of the things they taught us in training.' Jenny replied with a sarcastic tone, slightly incensed that he would assume she wouldn't know that.

'Uh huh, so in that case what's the best way to distinguish the suspects?' He asked, a little smugly, especially when she didn't reply. 'Treat everyone as a suspect, separate them all.' He added.

She stayed silent for a while, feeling a little embarrassed that she'd not thought of that answer, but was pissed that he was constantly testing her.

'I guess they didn't teach that in training. You'll soon learn to forget everything you were taught in training; the best way to learn how to do this job is on the job.' He said, his tone a little softer than before.

She took out her notebook and pen and walked away from him towards the building where all the navy personnel had been sent during the fire.

'Where are you going now?' Gibbs shouted after her.

She turned round and walked backwards for a few steps.

'No time like the present to start learning.' She said before she turned to face the other way and continued to walk inside.

Gibbs watched after her for a few moments before shaking his head following her. He could see that his initial instincts about her had been right, she was going to be a real handful.


	3. Chapter 3

Jenny had done a great job of separating everyone, which hadn't been an easy task since there were so many people present. However, the first thing she'd done when she'd entered the room was to grab a megaphone from one of the navy captains. She'd separated everyone into three groups; group one was for those who had seen something, group two was for anyone who had heard something and group three was for the rest of the ship who knew nothing.

She'd then moved each group into three separate rooms within the building they were in, posting senior naval staff within each room to prevent anyone from talking.

Gibbs was impressed by her initiative and had to admit that it wasn't something he would necessarily have thought of; however, it wasn't something that he was not going to easily admit.

'What you doing now Shepard?' He asked as he approached her.

'Waiting for you; I'm assuming you're not going to let me interview them, or at least not by myself.' She replied.

'You're right I'm not, but you can bring the first one through to speak to me.' He said as he banged a couple of chairs into place in the middle of the small room and pulled a table between them.

Jenny sighed and walked off to get the first petty officer, whilst Gibbs paced up and down sipping coffee. It took her little over a couple of minutes to locate the first victim to their interrogation and led him in. She sat him down in the chair opposite Gibbs and then she closed the door.

One after another she had led someone in to be interrogated by Gibbs; by the end of it she was exhausted and her muscles ached from the hours of standing and walking. She thanked God that they could finally go home for the night.

'We'll go over their statements tomorrow. I'll see you here in the morning.' Gibbs said as she collected her things from her desk.

She soon realised that was the only form of "goodnight" she was going to get, so she bade him goodnight and left.

She had to admit that her first day hadn't been too bad, even despite Gibbs's hostile attitude. She couldn't quite work him out, which instantly intrigued her about him, which caused an unexpected feeling to come over her and butterflies to form in her stomach.

Gibbs remained in the bullpen, trying to stretch out his work as much as possible to avoid going home. He and Diane had been fighting yet again and things were very strained, leaving an atmosphere in the house that he didn't want to confront.

He stared at the report in front of him, but found that instead of the words filtering through his mind, he was thinking about a certain red headed probie. He tried desperately to shake her from his mind, but no matter how he tried, she'd eventually wander back in.

After a couple of hours trying to work, he gave up on the report or trying to get forget about Jenny Shepard; instead he decided to head home for some bourbon and sanding, at least that would relax him. He switched off the lamp on his desk, grabbed his coat and headed for the elevator.

Just as he was about to enter the elevator Jenny came rushing out and nearly ran into him. She was clearly dressed to impress. Her long red hair was now sitting in subtle waves on her shoulders, a couple of pins here and there to pin some loose strands in place. Her make-up was subtle but really highlighted her features. She was dressed very differently from the pants suit she'd been wearing earlier; she was now wearing a dark green, knee length dress, which had an even darker green belt around her slim waist and dipped slightly to show off her cleavage, but not too much.

'What are you doing back here?' He asked, a little startled at being nearly run over.

'I think my wallet fell out of my purse.' She explained simply.

'I see. Going on a date?' He asked, surprising himself with his bluntness.

'You could say that.' She replied cryptically, clearly not going to say any more than that.

She disappeared in the direction of her desk as he waited at the elevator for her. He knew that he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but stare at her as she walked away from him.

'Got it!' She said with delight and relief as she held her wallet in the air.

He smiled as she re-joined him and they entered the elevator together. The rode down in awkward silence for a while before Gibbs finally broke it.

'You did good today Shepard.' He said calling her by her surname, much to her annoyance.

'I do have a first name you know!' She replied indignantly, although there was a slight smile playing on her lips and a flash of something in her eyes.

'Fair enough, Jenny.' He said just as they reached the bottom and the doors glided open.

He stepped out first but then turned back after a couple of steps, making her look at him with confusion.

'Jethro.' He said, making her look at him with slight confusion. 'My name, it's Jethro.' He added.

She smiled at him warmly and felt her heart skip a beat as she stared into his blue eyes.

'Jethro it is.' She replied.

They headed out to the parking lot together with a new comfort between them. Whatever awkwardness had been there before, no longer seemed to exist. Even though they were both starting to feel new feelings about the other, neither of them paid any attention to them, completely oblivious of what was to come.

**So this story was just a very short one to introduce Jenny to Gibbs; but don't worry there is already another one on its way. Thanks to those who read and reviewed. **


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